


Safe for Work

by apollonious



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff, Workplace Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:13:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24175660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apollonious/pseuds/apollonious
Summary: Ever since he started working at her office, Astrid has been having a hard time keeping away from the new tech guy.And now people are starting to notice.
Relationships: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Astrid Hofferson
Comments: 2
Kudos: 128





	Safe for Work

“Ugh, fuck _off,_ Jenni.”

The grumble wasn’t loud, barely more than a mutter, and Hiccup probably wouldn’t have heard it if he didn’t just happen to be right outside her office. But he _was_ right outside, walking past on his way to his own desk, and so after a quick glance down the hallway to make sure no one else was in the vicinity, he paused, leaning against one side of the doorway as he looked in on her.

The blonde woman was sitting at one of the two desks in the room. Her jacket was thrown gracelessly over the back of her chair, the sleeves of her steel-blue sweater pushed up to her elbows. Shoving her hair out of her face, she caught sight of him out of the corner of her eye and looked up at him, cheeks slightly tinged with pink.

“Having fun?” Hiccup asked, letting his lips curl in a teasing smirk.

Astrid blushed in earnest. “I’m guessing you heard that?”

Hiccup shrugged, not missing the way Astrid’s bright blue eyes fell to his shoulders as he did so. “I don’t know what you mean.”

She smiled ruefully, and the sight made Hiccup’s heart race, as it always did. “Are you heading home?”

“I just have to close out this last ticket, but after that, yeah. You?”

Astrid sighed. “No, I’m still gonna be here a while. I need to finish this thing I just got before I leave.”

“Dammit, Jenni,” Hiccup said, enjoying the way she blushed again as she laughed. 

“At least it shouldn’t take too long,” Astrid said. “Do you have any plans for the evening?” 

He shrugged again. “Probably just Netflix. And a friend might be coming over for dinner.”

A smile crept over Astrid’s face. “That sounds like it’ll be fun.”

“Here’s hoping,” Hiccup said. He pushed off the side of the doorway, straightening up. “I’ll leave you to it. Try not to stay too late, okay?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t. Have a good night.” With another exchange of grins, Hiccup went on his way.

He was almost out of the office, bag slung over his shoulder, when a woman’s voice calling his name caught his attention. He stopped, looking into the office the voice had come from.

“Hey, Atali. What’s up?”

Atali, the office manager, was a direct contrast to Astrid, perfectly put together despite the fact that the workday was now well and truly over. She was wearing a gray tweed jacket with threads of metallic silver and blue woven through, and though her skirt was hidden behind her desk, Hiccup knew it matched. Not a strand of her strawberry-blonde hair was out of place, and as always she radiated calm, as though she were prepared for all possible contingencies. 

“Were you in Astrid’s office just now?” she asked. 

“I, uh—yeah.” Hiccup chuckled. “She sounded unhappy about something, and I wanted to make sure it wasn’t her computer.”

Atali gave a soft laugh. “I trust all is well? Though knowing you, I hardly need to ask.”

He nodded, smiling. “Yeah, it’s fine.”

She stood, walking around her desk so she could lean one hip against it, and crossed her arms across her chest. “I’ve noticed you two have been spending a lot of time together lately.”

Hiccup drew his eyebrows together. “Is that a problem?”

“Not in the slightest,” Atali said, her voice as mild as ever, though her eyebrows arched. “And forgive me if I’m misreading the situation, but you two seem to get along remarkably well.” All at once, Hiccup was reminded of dozens of little looks he and Astrid had gotten from Atali and their other coworkers—including Jenni, the one who had earned Astrid’s wrath—over the past few months, whenever they’d been laughing in the hallways or coming back from lunch together or spending just a little more time in each other’s workspaces than was strictly necessary. Come to think of it, they really _were_ spending a lot of time together. “And should you continue spending time together, or even start hanging out outside of work,” Atali went on, smiling slightly at the look of realization that spread across Hiccup’s face, “that wouldn’t be a problem either. We don’t have any policies forbidding that kind of thing, especially since neither of you is the other’s direct supervisor. I keep forgetting you’ve only been here a few months, but I thought you ought to know.”

“I’m not sure what you mean,” Hiccup said, though he knew he wasn’t being terribly convincing.

If it had been on any other face, Hiccup would have called her expression a smirk. “She is quite pretty, isn’t she?”

Hiccup wanted to object, wanted to point out that pretty was the least of it, that Astrid was smart, with a shell of ferocity that belied a funny, caring nature. But instead he only said, fighting to keep his expression innocent, “I hadn’t noticed.”

* * *

Astrid locked her car and headed up the steps of the apartment building. The callbox buzzed only a few seconds after she punched in the apartment number, unlocking the door with a loud click. She trudged upstairs, following the familiar path to the corner unit that was her destination, work bag slung over her shoulders. 

“It’s open,” a voice called as soon as she knocked on the door. Her heart fluttered inside her even despite how tired she was as she turned the doorknob and stepped inside, slipping out of her loafers and dropping her bag onto the sofa. 

“Hey babe,” she called, hanging her jacket on the back of the door.

From the kitchen, she heard the sound of an oven door shutting, followed by water running briefly. Then Hiccup Haddock appeared in the doorway, wiping his hands dry on the apron he was wearing. 

“Evening, milady,” he said with a smile, his green eyes sparkling and his cheeks flushed just slightly pink from the heat of the kitchen. His sleeves were pushed up to his elbows, revealing the lean, wiry muscles of his forearms. 

Astrid went to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and grinning up at him. “Mind if I kiss the cook?”

“I’d be offended if you didn’t,” he said, his eyes falling from her eyes toward her mouth. 

She pulled his head down to hers for said kiss, and as she pulled away again, there was a soft, contented smile spreading across his face. “What are you making?” she asked. “It smells amazing.”

“Shepherd’s pie,” Hiccup said. “Just checked on it, and we’ve got about half an hour before it’s ready.”

“I figured that comment about a friend coming over for dinner was probably an invitation,” she said.

“Was that not clear?” he asked, drawing his eyebrows together. 

“I mean, you could have been referring to someone else,” she said, giggling as his lips pressed against her throat. “Maybe Heather and Dagur, they’ve been texting me about having a game night sometime soon.”

“That sounds fun, we should definitely take them up on that,” Hiccup murmured, and his warm breath on her neck made her shiver. 

“Or you might’ve been talking about Fishlegs. Or your cousin.” She pulled the loop of his apron up and over his head, hanging it on its hook on the wall without looking. “Or maybe—” She cut off with a gasp as Hiccup nipped at the corner of her jaw. 

“You really think there’s anyone else I’d make shepherd’s pie for after working all day?”

Astrid chuckled. “No, I guess not.” He met her gaze, his pupils wide with desire. “Half an hour, you said?”

He nodded. “Or thereabouts.” He let her pull his head down again, smiling against her lips as his hand crept beneath her sweater to touch the bare skin of her back.

They ate dinner in their underwear. Astrid, having stolen Hiccup’s sweater while he was in the kitchen serving up the meal, snuggled into its warmth with her legs thrown over Hiccup’s lap and her back against the armrest of the sofa. Once they’d finished eating and their plates were lying on the coffee table in front of them, Hiccup cuddled up to her, grabbing a pillow for her head and nestling into her shoulder as they settled in to watch a few episodes of their favorite show. 

“Thanks for cooking,” Astrid said. “That was a really good dinner.”

He popped his head up to kiss her on the cheek. “No problem, I’m glad you liked it.”

It wasn’t long before his attention had shifted from the TV back to her. He peppered her face and neck with kisses, making her giggle as he shifted positions so he was kneeling between her legs. 

“So Atali called me into her office on my way out of work,” he said. 

Instantly, the show was forgotten as Hiccup gained her undivided attention. “What did she want?”

“To tell me that if we’re not dating already, we should be.”

Astrid laughed. “She said that?” she asked skeptically.

“Well, no,” Hiccup admitted. “But she told me that if we were to start dating, it wouldn’t be a problem. So she basically said that.”

“We ought to tell them, right?”

“Do you want to tell them?” he asked, tracing the tip of his nose across her cheek.

“I mean, we’ll have to, if things get more serious or we move in together or something.”

He nuzzled her neck. The warmth of the touch, the brush of his lips on her throat, was distracting, as was the feeling of his bare skin beneath her legs as they wrapped around his waist, seemingly of their own accord. “Were you thinking about moving in together?”

She breathed in sharply as he pressed a kiss to the place where her pulse was thudding. “I mean—maybe. Eventually.” She pushed against his shoulders, making him lean back so she could look at his face. “And if we do, it wouldn’t make sense to commute separately, so we’d be showing up to work together. And if people are already starting to think we’re dating, or that we should date…” She shrugged. “I don’t know if we could pull off acting like we’re just platonic roommates.”

“That’s fair.” Hiccup took one of her hands in his, kissing the inside of her wrist. “I thought you were the one who didn’t want to tell them in the first place.”

Astrid sighed. “That was only because I was worried they’d assume I was only referring you for the tech support job because you were my boyfriend, or that we’d be unprofessional.”

“Both of which would have been unfounded if they did assume that,” Hiccup pointed out.

“I know,” Astrid said. “But I was still pretty new there when you started, and if things didn’t work out, I didn’t want it to be a whole big thing.”

“You mean you didn’t want it to reflect poorly on you if I crashed and burned.” But he was smiling.

“I knew you weren’t gonna crash and burn,” Astrid said. 

His smile widening, Hiccup leaned down to kiss her, then helped her sit up so he could pull his sweater up and off over her head.

When she came back from the bathroom a little while later, Hiccup was stretched out on the sofa. She smiled down at him, and he returned the look, warm and content and just starting to get sleepy. 

She knew that one day, they would have to tell Atali they were dating, and probably that they’d been dating since before Astrid told Hiccup to apply for what was now his job. Perhaps they’d just tell her, or maybe wait until they moved in together and just start showing up at the same time every day.

Or maybe, as Hiccup had suggested at one point, they wouldn’t tell anyone and instead just show up at an office party acting all lovey-dovey, as though they’d never _not_ been dating. Which was, of course, the truth.

Whatever they decided, Astrid thought, she’d be happy as long as she had Hiccup.

“I’m going to have to wear a turtleneck tomorrow,” she said, trailing one hand over the small purple hickeys that were already coming up on her neck and shoulder.

“Sorry,” Hiccup said, though he looked anything but. “You staying the night?” he asked hopefully.

Astrid bent down to collect her clothes, getting dressed as she found each garment. “Can’t,” she said, a cheeky smile spreading across her face. “I’ve got work tomorrow.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was loosely based on [this Tumblr post,](https://positive-memes.tumblr.com/post/176922165135/the-couple-pretends-like-theyre-not-together-in) though, as always, I've taken some liberties. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this, just a bit of fluff that's been bouncing around in my head for a while!
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
